Homelessness did not disappear in the 1990s, despite the nation’s economic boom. In fact, it appears to have increased. On any given day, at least 800,000 people are homeless in the United States, including about 200,000 children in homeless families. These startling statistics, however, do not tell the whole story. This excerpt is reprinted from a brief (What Will It Take to End Homelessness? Urban Institute Press, September 2001) based on an Urban Institute Press book, Helping America’s Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing? by Urban Institute researchers Martha Burt, Laudan Y. Aron, and Edgar Lee, with Jesse Valente. Both publications were funded mainly by the Melville Charitable Trust and the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Homelessness in America is a “revolving-door” crisis. Many people exit homelessness quickly, but many more individuals become homeless every day…A concerted national strategy is needed to prevent homelessness and to end quickly discrete episodes of homelessness if they become inevitable. That strategy must include new housing resources as well as community-building strategies that address the societal factors contributing to homelessness. Each community must work to supply affordable housing, improve schools, and provide support services for those in need. Only strategies that address systemic problems as well as provide emergency relief can eliminate homelessness in this country.

WHY HOMELESSNESS HERE, AND WHY NOW?
Structural, personal, and political factors influence the level of homelessness and determine where it will occur most often. Structural factors in the United States that have fueled the problem include:

• Changing housing markets for extremely low-income families and single adults are pricing more and more people with below-poverty incomes out of the market.
• Dwindling employment opportunities for people with a high school education or less are contributing to the widening gap between rich and poor.
• The removal of institutional supports for people with severe mental illness, epitomized by drastic reductions in the use of long-term hospitalization for the mentally ill, are leaving many individuals with few housing options.
• Racial, ethnic, and class discrimination in housing, along with local zoning restrictions that exclude affordable housing alternatives, persists in many areas.

If housing were inexpensive, or people could earn enough to afford housing, very few individuals would face homelessness. But housing costs have risen steadily across the country, and they have skyrocketed in many areas. Further, the inability to afford housing is concentrated among households with incomes below the poverty level, whose members account for the vast majority of people entering homelessness. At the same time, people with little education or job training find it increasingly difficult to earn enough money to raise their incomes above the poverty level, even if they are employed full-time and work overtime.

Once structural factors have created the conditions for homelessness, personal factors can increase a person’s vulnerability to losing his or her home. Many factors can make a poor person more susceptible to homelessness, including limited education or skills training, mental or physical disability, lack of family to rely on (e.g., after being placed in foster care), and alcohol or drug abuse. But without the presence of structural fault lines, these personal vulnerabilities could not produce today’s high level of homelessness.

Public policies may moderate the effects of both structural and personal factors to prevent homelessness. Some European countries guarantee their citizens housing, and many provide supports for families (e.g., infant and child care and income subsidies) well beyond those available in the United States. Universal health insurance is also available in most European countries. These safety net programs reduce the probability of homelessness, even in places where housing costs are high and wages are low, because they ease the pressure on household budgets.

WHAT SHOULD COMMUNITIES AND LEGISLATORS BE DOING?
Virtually all federal programs related to homelessness focus on serving people who are already homeless. When assistance is restricted to those who are homeless tonight, not much can be done to prevent homelessness tomorrow. Developing capacity to serve those who are already homeless while ignoring prevention does little to change the underlying problems among the very poor. Only policies that expand the availability of affordable housing to people with below-poverty incomes will ensure stable homes for these individuals. However, policies during the past decade have moved in the opposite direction.

The results of a decade and a half of research to determine what works to end homelessness are fairly conclusive about the most effective approaches. Providing housing helps currently homeless people leave homelessness. It also prevents people from losing their homes. In fact, without housing, virtually nothing else works. Housing often needs to be accompanied by supportive services, at least temporarily, but such services without a housing component cannot end homelessness.

With adequate housing resources, homelessness can also be averted for the many people who approach the homeless service system because they do not know where else to turn. communities throughout the country that have committed such resources have developed a variety of effective programs to prevent homelessness, including:

• Programs that negotiate with landlords and help with bad credit histories;
• Housing trust funds, rental assistance programs, and access to funds that can solve a household’s short-term problems, such as paying back rent, security deposits, and other moving expenses;
• Programs that encourage developers to build or renovate attractive, accessible properties; and help managers ensure good maintenance and repair; and
• Programs that help people develop personal and family financial management skills, establish or reestablish good credit and rental histories, and retain housing.

When a community ensures that housing within reasonable price ranges exists, offers its members living-wage jobs, provides quality schooling to develop individuals’ capacity to hold good jobs, and offers other supports for families and individuals, people can maintain stable housing. But far too few communities have these resources or are positioned to provide them. The answer? Put simply:

• Rebuild communities, especially the most troubled ones;
• Build more housing and subsidize the costs to make it affordable to people with incomes below the poverty level;
• Help more people afford housing by providing them with better schools, better training, and better jobs; and
• Prevent the next generation of children from experiencing homelessness.

Without these basic building blocks of a civil society, we are creating an underclass of persistently poor people vulnerable to homelessness. The costs of this neglect are too high in terms of both individual lives and public dollars for health, mental health, and correctional institutions. It is more effective, more humane, and ultimately more fiscally prudent to invest in prevention and support that leads to self-sufficiency and independence among all residents.

This excerpt is reprinted from a brief (What Will It Take to End Homelessness? Urban Institute Press, September 2001) based on an Urban Institute Press book, Helping America’s Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing? by Urban Institute researchers Martha Burt, Laudan Y. Aron, and Edgar Lee, with Jesse Valente. Both publications were funded mainly by the Melville Charitable Trust and the Fannie Mae Foundation.